After a historical performance on Sunday against Korea DPR, Papua New Guinea U20 women’s team captain Yvonne Gabong said the team has learnt a lot in the past few weeks.
PNG made their last appearance at the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup taking on top team Korea DPR in the last round of the Group A matches in Port Moresby.
Despite going down 7-1 to Korea DPR, the home side focused on making history as a host nation by scoring its first ever goal in the tournament.
Gabong said hosting the World Cup is a history for PNG and for the players were privileged to have been part of the team.
She said it was a bonus for the players to enter the tournament as the host nation.
“Unfortunately we didn’t win but at least we got a goal for our country.
“But most of all we came here to play our best and to learn as much as we can from our three group matches.
“The teams we played against are best in the world and we’ve learnt a lot.
“We’ve learnt that in order for us to play at this level, we have to be fit and skillful,” Gabong said.
Gabong added that she was so proud to have assisted to score the first ever goal for PNG.
“I didn’t expect it to be a goal because I was so under pressure and just passed the ball to Nicollete who scored,” she explained.
Gabong stressed that they couldn’t have scored without the hard work of all their team mates.